Feedback: Listening
Once we know what sound, feel or skill we desire, we need to be able to hear, see, or feel what we are doing. Today we’ll talk about listening.
Here are some ways to hear yourself better and suggestions for developing listening feedback.
Singing in a room with relatively “live” acoustics like a kitchen, bathroom, or stairwell
Using your “listening hand”. (Hold your right hand, made into a gentle fist, about 1 inch from your mouth.) It is important to use the right hand because it directs the sound to your right ear which transmits information to the vocal apparatus more quickly than the left.
Whichever listening feedback you choose, it can be very helpful to practice this way. Once you have gotten the hang of listening to yourself with the acoustical assistance, then see if you can do without it and still tune in to yourself. Go back and forth between using the assistance and not seeing if you can maintain the level of listening achieved with the assistance. This will build your self-listening skills for situations where the acoustics are not as good as in your shower.
There are teachers who say you cannot accurately hear yourself sing, and that you should not rely on it. I disagree, and I know from experience that the better you can hear yourself the faster and better you can make the sounds you want to make.